Its a matter of personal opinion , I do indeed prefer the new livery , the old livery was beginning to look a bit dated , also some TOC's have started having there units out-shopped in something which is not there parent group's colours.
A track access application indicates the calls on Scottish services are to be as follows:
Manchester Airport to Glasgow
Regular: Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Carstairs,
Motherwell
Additional: Bolton
Manchester Airport to Edinburgh
Regular: Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Haymarket
Additional: Bolton
Liverpool to Glasgow
Regular: St Helens Central, Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Carlisle
Additional: None
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20do...202017.pdf
It also looks like TPE want to extend Manchester Airport-York services to Newcastle this year using 185s:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20do...rights.pdf
I'm not sure where the stock will come from unless they stop loaning 185s to Northern.
Seems like Wigan is not to be a call on either the Manchester Airport - Glasgow or Edinburgh services , just the Liverpool - Glasgow services .
Probably quite understandable given the amount of Virgin services on this route.
(19/04/2016 14:24)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]Seems like Wigan is not to be a call on either the Manchester Airport - Glasgow or Edinburgh services , just the Liverpool - Glasgow services .
DfT requires TPE to divert all their Manchester to Scotland services via Bolton from 2018 so that Northern could provide a regular Manchester Airport to Barrow/Windermere service via Wigan. TPE will not be allowed to carry Bolton-Manchester commuters on their Scottish services.
I would like to see how they try and police Bolton - manchester passengers if they do stop at Bolton.
Probably be the same as Virgin used to do at Stockport - Stop to pickup only towards Scotland and stop to set down only towards Manchester.
Peak time services won't stop at Bolton at all. Off-peak services will have set-down and pick-up restrictions. On northbound services it's worth noting TPE won't have to pre-announce a diversion via Wigan if there's an issue on the Bolton line as no-one for Bolton should be on the service, if they are they might find themselves being stopped by a RPI at Preston who is accuses them of short faring.
I notice in the new timetable from May, on Sundays between July and August, the Liverpool - Newcastle service is stopping additionally at Newton-Le-willows - is this due to some engineering work elsewhere?
New announcement - Civity EMUs for the Scottish routes and new-build carriages hauled by Class 68s for the Liverpool - Newcastle route. Both built by CAF.
http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/news/2016/05/...-scotland/
I'm surprised at the Civity EMUs which had so far been marketed as more of a regional unit and I think it's a shame there's no tilt to utilise higher speeds on the WCML really.